'Shelby Oaks' Review: Chris Stuckmann’s Found Footage Debut Balances Style with Uneven Storytelling
- Jack Ransom
- Nov 8, 2025
- 3 min read
By Jack Ransom - November 8, 2025
“Who took Riley Brennan?”
What is 'Shelby Oaks' About?
The much anticipated debut feature film from YouTuber Chris Stuckmann. Shelby Oaks sees a woman's (Camille Sullivan) search for her long-lost sister (Sarah Dunn) become an obsession when she realises a demon from their childhood may have been real, not imaginary.
From YouTube to the Big Screen — Chris Stuckmann’s Passion Project Realised
Like the majority of Letterboxd users I am a big fan of Chris Stuckmann and he was one of the first YouTuber’s that I latched onto for regular viewing and also inspired me to dabble in reviews and collection videos over the past few years (its been a while but next year I’m thinking of starting up again). I was a backer for the project a few years ago, and it is genuinely mind-blowing that this low budget, crowd-funded debut from Chris has appeared at reasonable times at one of my local cinemas.
For that reason I feel a tad harsh when I say that from a narrative perspective Shelby Oaks suffers from a lack of substance, clunky structuring and familiar traits and tropes borrowed from genre peers. The film is somewhat of a slow-burner at just over 90 minutes. The faux documentary, found footage approach at the start effectively captures the essence of both the YouTube boom of the late-00’s era, alongside the incredibly popular true crime doc format that populates streamers currently.
However, once Mia begins her quest for the truth the film finds itself in jumpy and unfocused territory as the bingo card of genre tropes start to crop up: library research, creepy, ominous old woman delivering cryptic exposition… the already thin supporting characters fall to the wayside and we are given very little context or intrigue to latch onto the evil presence that is hounding them.
Visual Style, Direction, and Atmosphere Shine in Stuckmann’s Debut
Stuckmann’s strength is clearly from a stylistic and directorial perspective. His love and passion for found footage shines through and he authentically captures snippets of the early YouTube era and implements the documentary angle effectively. The slow-motion, haunting and atmospheric opening credits set a bleak tone and the cinematography, lighting and score are genuinely great, and capture the small town claustrophobia and unease. Stuckmann’s framing and scare placement’s will have you peering around the frame and the bursts of practical effects are suitably gnarly.
The performances are solid, and the cast do their best with the weaker screenplay elements. Camille Sullivan’s persistence and dedication to finding Riley is palpable (she also has a great horror scream) and Sarah Dunn has an aura of mystique and innocence as the long missing Riley. Lastly established famous faces Keith David & Robin Bartlett effortlessly showcase their presence and calibre in their supporting scenes.
Final Verdict: 'Shelby Oaks' Is Flawed but Promising for Stuckmann’s Future
Despite clearly a lot of passion behind it, Shelby Oaks unfortunately can’t help being just another largely generic supernatural horror affair. Despite Stuckmann's strong visual flair, blending of stylistic choices and committed performances, the screenplay is weak, the pacing loses momentum as the film progresses and you can’t help but feel the ending was jumbled. Still, it’s genuinely great that this was made and I look forward to Chris’ next venture!
'Shelby Oak' is available now to see in UK cinemas.
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